Via a partnership among the National Park Service, AmeriCorps, and the Kupu Aina Corps, a conservation nonprofit in Hawaii, five young adult residents of Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands are working on wildfire recovery and climate change-related resilience projects in parks in those two U.S. territories.
Those five Pacific Islands Conservation Corps interns help remove fire-prone invasive plant species and restore lands with fire-resistant native species. And they perform other duties that beautify and fortify park lands and waters, too. Simultaneously, the interns, whose terms last one year, receive career development training, career guidance, and hands-on experience.
“The difference it’s making for these program participants to be able to help their families while they are also developing themselves is significant,” said Ernestine White, the NPS lead for the program.